Selfless, Brave, and True
Selfless, Brave, and True Episode Number: Season 2, Episode 18 Directed By: Ralph Hemecker Air Date: March 24, 2013 Previous Episode: Welcome to Storybrooke Next Episode Lacey "Selfless, Brave and True" is the 18th episode of Season 2 of the American ABC fairytale/drama television series Once Upon a Time, and the show's 40th episode overall. It aired on March 24, 2013. It was co-written by Robert Hull and Kalinda Vazquez, while being directed by Ralph Hemecker. This episode centers on August Booth as he tries to warn Emma Swan about Tamara, while flashbacks show August's past with Tamara. Plot 'Opening Sequence' August Booth's trailer appears in the forest. 'In the Character's Past' In October 2011 in Phuket, Thailand, August is now discovering that he is turning back into wood (at 8:15, which is when the curse starts to weaken). As he wakes up, August asks his girlfriend Isra to help, and tells her he has to go to the hospital. Weeks later he arrives at an ER in Hong Kong, where August tries to convince a doctor by showing him his wooden leg, even using a knife to stab it, but the only thing the doctor sees is his human leg. As the doctor screams for the orderlies, August escapes into the seedy streets of Hong Kong, where he meets an individual, who tells him of a person who can help him, The Dragon. When they reach the Dragon's place, August waits outside, then notices a person dropping her cell phone, and when he hands it back to her, it is revealed that the person is none other than Tamara, the woman who became Neal's fiancee. August goes to see the Dragon, then shows him his wooden leg and the Dragon immediately recognizes him as Pinocchio. The Dragon tells him he can help him but there are conditions. First, the Dragon needs to acquire something close to August's heart that cannot be replaced, his necklace that was made from his strings when he was a puppet. The second is $10,000 US Dollars, and if August brings it that evening he will become human again. Later that night, August enters a bar and runs into Tamara, who offers to buy him a beer and explains that she went to see the Dragon because she was diagnosed with cancer. It turns out that she also is carrying an envelope full of money and when she excuses herself to take a phone call, August takes the money and races back to the Dragon's flat, where he gives him the money and as expected receives a potion that would stop him ever turning into wood. Unfortunately, just as he leaves the place, Tamara chases after him and he falls to the ground and Tamara takes possession of the potion. Tamara later returns to the Dragon's flat, where he begins to figure out her deception that she never had cancer and that she was after the potion, which she noticed contained a substance that wasn't from "this" world. When Tamara says she cannot risk anyone else finding the Dragon and pulls out a tazer, the Dragon begins to rise from the floor, exhaling red smoke and exclaiming that she hasn't met the 'Real' Dragon. Tamara is momentarily shocked, but then thrusts the tazer into him, killing the Dragon. Months later in New York City, and after learning that Emma Swan has just arrived in Storybrooke to break the curse, August meets up with Neal/Baelfire to confirm what will happen next, then tells Neal that he will follow Emma to Storybrooke and when she breaks the curse he will send Neal a postcard. As August rides off, the two are unaware that Tamara has been watching very closely from a vendor stand, where she had bought a grande size coffee cup and as expected "bumps" into Neal, putting her scheme in motion. 'Storybrooke' David makes breakfast in bed for Mary Margaret. Emma thinks he is coddling Mary Margaret too much and cannot help her by being overly protective. Emma tells him that at the end of the day Mary Margaret needs to help herself. Mary Margaret gets up and tells David she has to go to the woods to think things over. In the woods, Mary Margaret sees a trailer and discovers August, who is now completely wooden and refuses to come out, telling Mary Margaret that he wants no one to find out that he is still in Storybrooke. Emma learns that Neal has invited Tamara to Storybrooke and is worried that Tamara will find out the truth of who he is, but Neal says that he needs her. When Tamara shows up, Henry asks about how Tamara met Neal, then heads to school with Emma. Neal shows Tamara Henry's book and explains that he is from the Enchanted Forest. Tamara refuses to believe his claim because she believes that Emma is after him but Neal says that he and Emma are the past and Tamara wants him to prove it. At Granny's Diner, Greg is enjoying apple pie and learns that Regina had bought it for him as thanks for finding Henry. When Regina asks if they had met before, Greg claims that it's their first time meeting. Mary Margaret finds Marco at the diner and tells him that she has found August. Unfortunately, someone else hears the conversation: Tamara, who finds August and tells him to leave Storybrooke forever. She gives him the keys to her vehicle to return to New York City to pick up the healing potion in her apartment. As Emma, Mary Margaret, and Marco head to August's trailer, Marco confesses to Mary Margaret about the wardrobe and apologizes to her. Mary Margaret slaps him, then apologizes and says she would have done the same for her child. The three learn that August has just left Storybrooke. En route he finds and recognizes the photo of Tamara and her grandmother (which he had previously seen while with the Dragon), prompting him to return to town. As he makes a phone call to Emma from the Sheriff's office, Tamara cuts the phone line. Emma races back to the office; August realizes that Tamara killed the Dragon and that her real goal was to come to Storybrooke to take magic and plans to warn the residents. Tamara then pulls out her taser and uses it on August so he can't go through with it. As Emma, Mary Margaret, Henry, David, Neal, and Marco arrive to save the now almost lifeless body of August, August gives Emma his final words, then dies in Marco's arms. Henry believes that the warning August was attempting to give Emma was brave and truthful, then asks if The Blue Fairy can save him. As August's actions were indeed brave and truthful, The Blue Fairy uses her wand and brings him back to life as a real young boy, Pinocchio. When Emma asks if Pinocchio remembers anything, he says he does not remember. Tamara tells Neal that she "believed" him, and will stay with him. As the Charming Family returns home, Emma tells Henry that she is sorry about lying to him, and the two make up, while Mary Margaret and David have an exchange with Mary Margaret telling David about the darkened hole in her heart, and David vowing to do whatever it takes to protect their family. Regina goes to Greg's room and tells him that she knows who he was by showing him the lanyard she had kept. Greg responds by telling Regina that he will not leave Storybrooke without his father, despite Regina's claim that he left. Greg proves to Regina that he is not bluffing because hours later he gets a phone call from "Her," who is knocking on his door. That "Her" was Tamara, who is revealed to be using Neal and before they close the door, they prepare for a sexual encounter while Neal is taking a shower in the other room. Cast Starring *Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard *Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan *Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills *Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David Nolan/Prince James *Emilie de Ravin as Belle *Colin O'Donoghue as Hook *Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills *Meghan Ory as Red Riding Hood/Ruby *Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold Guest Starring *Michael Raymond-James as Baelfire/Neal Cassidy *Ethan Embry as Greg Mendell *Sonequa Martin-Green as Tamara *Eion Bailey as Pinocchio/August Booth *Keegan Connor Tracy as The Blue Fairy/Mother Superior *Tony Amendola as Geppetto/Marco *Tzi Ma as The Dragon *Jakob Davies as Young Pinocchio Trivia Production Notes= *The title card features August's trailer. *The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on January 31, 2013. *This episode establishes that time started moving in Storybrooke on October 23. 2011, the same date that the show premiered. This is proven when August's wooden state is triggered in Phuket, Thailand at 8:15 A.M. on October 24. - the very same moment that Emma accepts the room key at 8:15 P.M. (the time zone in Phuket is 12 hours ahead of Maine's timezone). *For the scenes with a wooden August, Eion Bailey wore a green SFX hood and motion capture dots on his face. *Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz admitted their biggest Season Two regret was the tasing of August. As the episode was being written, they thought Tamara needed to use a real world weapon, so they picked a taser. Eddy explains that they "figured the audience assumed it wasn't a taser... but they didn't", so fans began to give them history lessons about wood and conducting electricity. Eddy adds that if he could change it, he would pick a glowing syringe that Tamara would have shoved into the Dragon and August. |-|Goofs= *When Tamara opens the envelope of cash, the words "motion picture use only" are printed on the dollar bills, proving that they are prop money, and not real banknotes. *August phones Emma from the sheriff's station before being cut off and electrocuted by Tamara. However, he later stumbles out of the town hall and collapses, not the sheriff's station. |-|Other Notes= FILMING LOCATIONS *Some of the Hong Kong scenes were filmed in Port Metro in Vancouver, Canada, where production for Once Upon a Time is based. The scene where Tamara confronts August, seems to have been filmed in Port Moody in the Metro Vancouver region, as the Bubble Gallo Teahouse, a real business in this city, can be spotted in the background. *The scenes at the Storybrooke Town Hall were filmed in Fort Langley, British Colombia, where the Fort Langley Community Hall doubles as the Storybrooke Town Hall for exterior scenes. When the group finds August in front of the town hall, two real life businesses across the street from the Fort Langley Community Hall, Jim's Pizza and Fort Fish & Chips, is in the background. This scene where Mary Margaret and Emma walk down the streets of Storybrooke in "Dreamy" was filmed in the same street: The same two businesses are in the background. *The New York City flashback with Neal, August and Tamara were filmed on Colombia Street and Powell Street in Gastown, Vancouver. Neal and August's conversation, takes place in front of the Vancouver clothing store Stussy on Powell Street 49. The name "Manhattan" has been added to the store window.